One of the coolest things I've done in my 14 years in the wine trade was boating down the Danube with Falstaff winemaker of the year Rudi Pichler and the team from Winebow during Vievinum 2010. This first of three posts is mainly the western end of Kremstal before entering into the Wachau. After tasting at Weingut Stadt Krems, we set out for the village of Spitz, starting near the Weinzierlberg vineyard in Krems. Weinzierlberg (wine hill) has been planted to vine since the Middle Ages and is dominated by loam, loess, and gravel, producing peppery Gruner Veltliner and lemony Riesling.

 

The Weingut Stadt Krems, as the name suggests, is owned by the city of Krems in lower Austria. It has 550 years of history behind it, not all of them glorious in the wines they were producing. This has all changed now with the brilliant team of enologist Fritz Miesbauer and managing director Franz-Josef Gansberger (he goes by Jos or Josey) at the helm for the last decade. Fritz and Jos have full control of everything that goes on here. Fritz said he has just one meeting a year with the city of Krems. "It takes 30 minutes to show the balance". The citizens of Krems should be just as pleased with the balance of the books as they are the quality of the wines! There is not a bad wine in the bunch and the top tier "Erste Lage" wines are on par with any estate in Kremstal. Stadt Krems owns 31 ha in top sites, half of which are on terraces. Remarkably no wines or grapes have ever been bought from outside vineyards, they are farmed without chemicals. The top wines are made with spontaneous fermentation, and aged in stainless steel. The house style here is for dry, fresh, and focused wines, with an emphasis on complexity and less fruitiness.

2009 Weingut Stadt Krems Gruner Veltliner Kremstal DAC Weinzierlberg

2009 Weingut Stadt Krems Gruner Veltliner Kremstal DAC Reserve Wachtberg "Erste Lage"

2009 Weingut Stadt Krems Riesling Steinterrassen Kremstal DAC